Books in the British Archaeological Reports International Series series

This volume is a collection of 18 papers resulting from a symposium organized for the Society of American Archaeology in Chicago in 1999. The objective was to facilitate discussion on the fundamental problems of the European Early Upper Paleolithic period (c.30k-45k BP), with special focus on innovative techniques, methods, or theoretical frameworks that have usefully resituated the problems and knowledge of the EUP. The work is divided into three sections - The transition from LMP to EUP; Questions of typological significance and technological organization; Explaining interassemblage variability. The sites and finds discussed range from Portugal and Spain as far as the Middle East and the Ukraine.

A short report on the site and sanctuary of Torreparedones in rural Cordoba, constructed in the reign of Caesar and in use throughout the reign of Augustus, and abandoned in the 1st century AD. The authors summarise the archaeological evidence for the occupation of the site, the construction of the sanctuary, its use and religius significance."

The Archaeological Sciences 1999 conference hosted by BASRG at the University of Bristol brought together scientists from throughout the UK, and also international participants from France, Germany, Poland and Egypt. The papers presented provided a valuable insight into the exciting new avenues for research opening up to archaeological science within the UK. This volume is representative of the very broad range of research themes addressed during the conference.

The majority of the 17 papers in this volume were presented as conference papers at the Theoretical Archaeology Group (TAG) conference in 1999 at Cardiff, Wales, in the session 'Peopling the Mesolithic in a Northern Environment'. The approach adopted was to investigate the social Mesolithic, a radical departure from traditional approaches to the period, which tends to focus on flint typologies rather than people. Many of the themes and debates raised by these papers have been discussed and argued at a number of subsequent conferences, sessions and day schools on reconstructing the social Mesolithic. The debate continues, and hopefully the papers in this volume will engender further discussion.

In 1827, a local collector of antiquities encountered a vehicle carrying stones from the site of Kermenchik/Simferopol on the Black Sea near Chersonesos. The director of the Odessa Museum immediately recognized the importance of these finds and rushed to the site. In the first publication on the site, the author claimed to have discovered the Neapolis built by the Scythian, King Skiluros. Thus began the archaeological discoveries at a site that has fascinated excavators to this day. The author of this present monograph summarizes the decades of research and theories connected with this important site and its environs: features, architecture, rites, material cultural, trade, and cult objects. A uniform chronological and cultural model for Scythian Neapolis is proposed and phased characteristics show its historical evolution (c.300 BC to 300 AD). A group of farmsteads developed into a settlement, then into a royal fortress with a palace/temple complex, then into a significant fortified settlement of some scale, then once more into a royal (?) fortress before becoming the unfortified centre of an agrarian territory as the headquarters of a Bosphorean deputy. One Appendix concentrates specifically on the Mausoleum of King Skiluros, while the other details the inscriptions and sculptures from the 'Southern Palace' site.Translated from Russian by Valentina Mordvintseva

Mycenaean society, it is commonly asserted, was characterised by centralised decision making over an integrated and culturally homogeneous region. In matters political and economic, the local rulers held sway over a population subject to taxes in kind and corvée labour. Beyond his obligations to the Palace, the Late Helladic inhabitant of the area commanded little by way of resources to engage in anything but subsistence activities. Such is the power of this long-prevailing view that, until recently, few scholars thought of questioning the logic and implications of the various concepts and models based on it. At its most simple, the argument revolves around the issue of whether Mycenaean society was strongly centralised with redistributive traits or whether the power and homogenising influence of the power base, if any, was not strong enough to touch the furthest corners of everyday, subsistence-level life. If the latter view has anything to commend it, this will have far-reaching ramifications for our perception of the nature of life and society in the Mycenaean Argolid. If, on the other hand, the long-held view can be proved to be correct, researchers will be on much firmer ground with respect to the inferences that may legitimately be drawn. In this monograph, the author addresses these issues by evaluating the conceptual and theoretical foundation upon which the now predominant view is based, as well as the claims made with respect to the nature and character of the economic system of Late Helladic society in the Argolid. Furthermore, the present study also sets out to analyse in more detail the role of Asine, a mid-tier settlement in the Argolid, with a view to establishing the vertical and horizontal linkages that this settlement may have had with the surrounding communities.

In this work the author focuses on the social and other non-material dimensions of life that are increasingly integral to landscape archaeology. Although the geographical focus of the study is southern Epirus, and in particular the lower valley of the Acheron River, the author also attempts a general, though not exhaustive, synthesis of the Bronze Age evidence from all of Greek Epirus. The Epirote Bronze Age remains poorly known and there has been no new synthesis for some time. Until recently, most of the scholarly work has been in Greek, much of it rather inaccessible, and this may have discouraged the wide dissemination of information. More importantly for the present case, however, a fresh assessment of evidence from the whole of Epirus (and to a lesser extent, surrounding regions) was essential to place events and longer-term processes in the lower Acheron valley in proper context. The landscapes of Epirus are highly diverse, and the lower Acheron valley, as lowland, coastal, and Mediterranean in climate, presented a singular set of circumstances to Bronze Age inhabitants. The important contrasts detected across Epirus throw into relief the divergent trajectory of the lower Acheron valley, and suggest certain explanations for it. It is hoped that this work will give the reader a sense of the Bronze Age landscapes of lowland southern Epirus, and a feeling for what it might have been like to inhabit them.

This volume summarizes the archaeology of the Mimbres area. Mimbres is the archaeological term for ancient Native American peoples who lived along the river of that name (the Rio Mimbres) and several other valleys in the southwestern corner of the state of New Mexico. They flourished, artistically, from about A.D. 950 to 1150; and the characteristic black-on-white pottery of that period is represented in art museums and private collections around the world. A single Mimbres bowl can fetch tens of thousands of dollars at auction. The pottery itself was not technically remarkable (hand-formed, indifferently finished earthenware) but the designs - painted in black pigment on the white-slipped interior of bowls - constitute one of the most appealing, intriguing and recognizable Native artistic tradition of ancient North America. Any reader of this volume almost certainly has seen Mimbres art, and the chances are good that the reader possesses a Mimbres image or two on a T-shirt, a trivet, a tea towel, or even a tattoo. As well as pottery, the author investigates: cremations and burial rituals, shells and canal irrigation, and other aspects of Mimbres archaeology, as well as indicating areas for future research.

Understanding Paleolithic animal exploitation requires a multifaceted approach. Inferences may derive from research on paleoenvironments and taphonomy, the development of new methods for interpreting seasonality patterns, and ethnoarchaeological observations. A full understanding of Paleolithic economies also requires a multiregional perspective. This volume brings together a group of scholars with research interests from across the globe to understand the nature of animal exploitation practices through the lens of taphonomy. The chapters include case studies on the types of animals that Paleolithic peoples hunted and gathered through time and space, and taphonomic analyses of non-human animal bone assemblages.

Acts of the XIVth UISPP Congress, University of Liège, Belgium, 2-8 September 2001. Section 1214 papers, 5 in English and 9 in French.

The objective of this research is to develop a model of social interaction for the Natufian culture in Southwest Asia through interpretation of environmental and material-culture variability. The author achieves this through the development of rigorous systematic grouping and spatial analysis of artifacts. The Natufian culture (approximately 13,000 or 12,800 BP) is critical to our understanding of the transition from mobile hunter-gatherers to sedentary hunter-gatherer-farmers. They are thought to represent one of the final periods of archaeologically known hunter-gatherers in Southwest Asia, preceding the advent of cultivation and agricultural economies. The people who we classify as Natufian are situated in the Levant, which now encompasses Israel, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. This research is limited to those Natufian sites situated in what is now modern day Israel and Jordan. Characterization of the Natufian is primarily based on the chipped-stone technology. Other distinctive characteristics include material culture of ground stone, marine shell, and bone as well as architecture, bedrock mortars, and burials. The methods for this research include two components: systematics and spatial analysis. The first part addresses the theoretical paradigm and its role in this research. Chapter two explores the origins of agency theory and reviews the history of agency-centered research in archaeology, and discusses the theoretical perspective applied for this research. Chapter three explores the vibrant history of research on the Natufian. Chapters four to six introduce the archaeological data used in this research as well as the first stage of analysis. Chapters seven to nine direct attention to the second stage of analysis: spatial analysis. The last part of this research, chapter 10, tests the previous hypotheses and outlines the construction of an agency-centered model based on the information provided in the second stage of analysis, with the aim of constructing a model proposing social relations for a prehistoric population. Overall the study attempts to incorporate a social agency dimension into Natufian research.

In this work the author focuses on early Hispanic churches built before the arrival of the Roman Liturgy and the Romanesque techniques by examining liturgical sculptural evidence. This material record provides a detailed understanding of both the functional and constructive features of the churches and leads to a definition of an archaeological methodology for surveying Late Antique and Early Medieval Hispanic churches, a methodology that enables a revision of the traditional historical model based on general stylistic elements that pay little or no attention to spatial context. To illustrate this, the author also makes use of a wide body of research obtained over the last fifteen years undertaken at several Hispanic churches that provides insights into building technology, the most important historical conclusion of which has been the re-dating of the most famous churches of the period. Examples are provided from the churches of San Pedro de la Nave (Zamora), Santa María de Quintanilla de las Viñas (Burgos), San Juan de Baños (Palencia), Santa Comba de Bande (Orense), Santa María de Melque (Toledo), and Santa Lucía del Trampal (Cáceres).

Research in the field of neo-catastrophism and impact cratering has quickened its pace since the early 1980s. An increasing number of astronomers have suggested that a series of cosmic disasters punctuated the earth in prehistoric times. Scholars such as Victor Clube, Bill Napier, Mark Bailey, Sir Fred Hoyle and Duncan Steel claim that a more 'active' sky might have caused major cultural changes of Bronze Age civilisations, belief systems and religious rituals. Can the astronomical evidence brought forward by these astronomers be substantiated by the historical, archaeological and climatological records?

Investigation of social and economic change has always been central to archaeology. As part of this, population movements have frequently been emphasised as instigators of transition. This is particularly the case in British archaeology where, as an island, migration episodes tend to be viewed as highly significant. The Norman Conquest was the last and perhaps most famous of Britain's invasions, resulting in the almost complete replacement of the Saxon elite, both lay and ecclesiastical. Because the events surrounding the Conquest are so well documented, 1066 has come to be held as a significant watershed. This book sets out to undertake a detailed zooarchaeological analysis of the Norman Conquest, whereby data are considered by site-type to detect subtle temporal variations, if present, in human-animal relationships. The aim of this book is to show that zooarchaeological and historical data can be used together profitably to provide a new perspective on the Normans and their conquest of England. In order to accomplish this, the Norman Conquest is examined at the macro, meso and micro scale, which can be translated as the Norman Empire, Saxo-Norman England and specific Saxo-Norman sites, respectively.

Proceedings of the 19th Meeting of the European Association of South Asian Archaeology in Ravenna, Italy, July 2007South Asian Archaeology 2007. Special Sessions 2

Final Conference University of Burgundy, Dijon, 23-25 June 2008This volume presents the contributions of the four workgroups involved in the collective research programme entitled 'ArchaeDyn. Spatial dynamics of settlement and natural resources: towards a long-term integrated analysis, from Prehistory to the Middle Ages', funded by the French Ministry of Research between 2005 and 2007.

Proceedings of the Graduate Archaeology Organisation Conference on the Fourth and Fifth of April 2008 at Hertford College, Oxford, UKThis volume stems from the proceedings of the third conference of the Graduate Archaeology Organisation at Oxford (GAO) held 4-5 April, 2008 at Hertford College, Oxford. The conference title was Challenging Frontiers: Mobility, Transition and Change, and aimed to address the question of mobility in the archaeological record from an inter-disciplinary perspective, and hence to encourage dialogue between the more artistic and scientific subdisciplines of archaeology.

Acknowledging problems inherent in dating Australian rock art, Natalie Franklin approaches a group of engravings known as the Panaramitee style' in terms of its spatial variation.

This volume grew out of a symposium session on Experimental Archaeology that was co-organized by James R. Mathieu and Andrew W. Pelcin for the Society for American Archaeology annual meetings in Chicago, Illinois in 1999.

This book deals with the Roman finds from the eastern part of the Roman Province of Dalmatia, situated in today's western Serbia. Through the study of inscriptions, small finds, cemeteries and settlements, the author traces the progress of Romanization, social changes, administrative structures and economic life in the area from the 1st to the 4th centuries AD.Illustrations by Free Artist Vuk Roganovi¿, B.S. ArchitectureTranslated from Serbian by Ana Vasi¿

There are several reasons for archaeologists to develop and critically examine the use of archaeological predictive models (APM). APM has had an immense impact on the field of Cultural Resources Management (CRM), particularly in North America. APM is thought to be much more effective in predicting hunter-gatherer site locations, rather than the site locations of complex societies. It is hoped that by the development and critical assessment of APM that these concerns can be addressed and what is a potentially powerful archaeological tool can gain greater acceptance. In this volume, the author creates four models to predict site locations of boreal forest hunter-gatherers. Two of the models are created using cultural and environmental variables. The third model focuses on economic variables in creating a predictive model using logistic regression, and the fourth is a model that combines economic, cultural and environmental variables to make predictions. Finally, this research tests the effectiveness of general ecological models of cultural behaviour as well as the relative merits of environmental/cultural and economic models. Furthermore, the research will test basic principles of cultural ecology at a time when many anthropologists are in the process of revising and updating this paradigm.

This volume is a collection of papers originally presented at the Origins of the LBK symposium held at the 8th Annual Meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists (EAA) in Thessaloniki, Greece, between September 25th and 29th, 2002. The aim of the session was to summarize recent developments in research and fieldwork taking place in the eastern part of the LBK area of distribution, and to introduce this very interesting research to the broader archaeological community. The 15 papers have been organized into three themes: "Theoretical Constraints on the Understanding of the LBK", "The Earliest LBK and What Came Before: The Emergence of Traditions" and "Perspectives on the Early LBK: Life and Times".

This research presents the qualitative and quantitative data collected from the architecture within ten Neolithic and Early Chalcolithic settlements in the Central and Southwestern regions of modern-day Anatolia, the larger part of Turkey lying on the 'Asian side' to the east of Istanbul. The sites investigated are: Aþýklý Höyük, Çatalhöyük, Canhasan III, Canhasan I, Güvercinkayasý, Höyücek, Bademaðacý, Erbaba, Hacýlar and Kuruçay. After investigating the interplay between theory and methodology in order to establish a research methodology, the work offers a general overview of the topography and climate of Central and Southwest Anatolia, reviews the current state of archaeological knowledge about prehistoric subsistence and settlement patterns and explains the selection of the ten sites for further study. The qualitative and quantitative data for these ten sites are then presented and analysed and the concluding chapter considers to what extent the research has been able to contribute to current theories about household and community within the Near East. It makes some general observations about the relationship between individual households and the wider community over region, subsistence patterns and time, sets the research within the wider field of settlement studies and identifies the need for further research.

In this work the author uses an evolutionary and ecological approach to interpreting early hominin geographic ranges, specifically integrating theory from biogeography and studies of human evolution. A key part of the research is a comparative study of primate distribution in relation to physical and behavioural characteristics and environmental factors using GIS and statistical techniques. The comparative method makes it possible to test hypotheses of adaptation and correlated evolution of environmental tolerance, geographical distribution, and certain key behavioural characteristics. The breadth of data available from studies of extant primates makes it possible to analyse the role of a range of behavioural and life history characteristics in the evolution of primate geographic ranges. Contents: Chapter 1 is an introduction and Chapter 2 presents a survey of the literature on the modern distribution of species, to determine which factors have been identified as important and how they interact. Chapter 3 outlines changes in early hominin geographic ranges over time, giving three models of the evolution of hominin geographic ranges. These models are based on theories about human evolution, and the spatial processes described in Chapter 2, and are backed up where possible with examples of trends in the fossil record. Chapter 4 describes a comparative analysis of primate distribution in relation to physical and behavioural characteristics and environmental factors, conducted using GIS and statistical techniques - with a particularly focus on the interaction of the factors such as: behavioural flexibility and cultural transmission, geographical distribution and environmental variability, and life history parameters. Chapter 5 is an investigation of large-scale patterns in the distribution and ecology of modern African mammals. The aim is to assess the role of dietary niches, particularly meat eating, in species distribution. Chapter 6 assesses the relevance of the models developed through theoretical discussion and comparative analysis, by examining the data on early hominin distribution and ecological niches for a particular case study. The chapter also looks at hypotheses of hominin range expansion during the period 1.8-0.6 million years ago in Africa, by comparing palaeoanthropological and archaeological data with the predictions of the models.

Compositional data on bronze artefacts of the European Chalcolithic and Bronze Age are now quite numerous. This study differs in that it indicates how the bronzes were made: hammered into shape or cast, the moulds, the cooling processes, and after casting techniques. The authors focus on the microstructure and behaviour of archaeologically relevant alloys cast with materials likely to have been accessible in the Chalcolthic and Early Bronze Age of Europe. In order to compile a reference collection for the determination of ancient production methods of cast bronze artefacts, a series of casting experiments with archaeologically relevant alloys was carried out in the University of Sheffield. Bronze flat axes, characteristic of the European Chalcolithic to Bronze Age periods, were cast in moulds of sand, clay and bronze. The composition of the bronze, the moulding material and the cooling method after casting were systematically varied under controlled conditions. The microstructure, dendritic arm spacing or grain size and microhardness of the cast metals were studied on each casting. The malleability of the metals was also investigated by cold-rolling and annealing processes. All figures and a selection of photomicrographs are printed in black and white in this volume. They are reproduced in colour in the online download. There is one plate of colour photomicrographs in chapter 9. The complete series of colour photomicrographs for bronzes cast in sand moulds is given in appendix 2, that for bronzes cast in clay moulds is in appendix 3 and that for bronzes cast in bronze moulds is in appendix 4. The photomicrographs of the series of cold-working and annealing are given in appendix 5. All sample numbers discussed in this volume, with their composition and cooling regimes, are given in appendix 6.

The subject of this study is hunter-gatherer adaptations to high altitude, focussed around the little-known valley of the River Atuel in the province of Southern Mendoza, Argentina. The research is original, using latest methods and techniques within a context of current archaeological theories. The author also identifies new trends in the history of hunter-gatherer populations, which have implications and applications for groups on other continents than South America.

This study explores several different techniques to isolate and determine the age of lithic microdebitage in relation to archaeological deposits and sedimentation. This research proposes the integration of techniques available in archaeology and geomorphology to ascertain the shape and features of quartz microdebitage, and the use of OSL for direct dating of the artefacts and sediments. In this research, sedimentary samples from two archaeological sites in northern Australia are analysed using experimental methodologies to isolate and date quartz microdebitage, derived from the process of manufacturing stone tools. The central aim of this research is to apply the OSL dating technique for direct dating of quartz artefactual material. In order to achieve this it is necessary to unequivocally distinguish between microdebitage and the surrounding sediments. This is done by applying grain surface features techniques and microdebitage analysis to separate archaeological quartz and naturally occurring sedimentary quartz grains. The aims of this research are, therefore, to identify quartz microdebitage from archaeologically relevant deposits, and to use quartz microdebitage for OSL age determination, along with refinements in microdebitage analysis techniques. The principal novel aspect of this research is the dating of quartz microartefacts by OSL, although the combination of approaches taken, and their integration, is also innovative.

Actas del Congreso Internacional (Cádiz, 7-9 de noviembre de 2005)

First and Second Millennia B.P.This work presents a detailed study of the Puna de Atacama oasis (Antofalla, Argentina) across the first two millennia B.P.

Proceedings of the XV World Congress UISPP Lisbon, 4-9 September 2006. Volume 38, Session C76This book includes papers from the session 'Antiquarians at the Megaliths' presented at the XV UISPP World Congress, Lisbon, 2006